I'm awake for a few minutes and want to continue my thought from earlier. It took me some 15 minutes to write that post because I kept falling asleep. That is very unusual for me--I've been known to write 30 KB in one afternoon!

For a person with respiratory illness, among other things that cause warnings to stay away from secondhand smoke, there is nothing worse than sitting in a smoke-filled environment. I am normally happy to acknowledge that while I may not like other people's choices, I am not free to trample on them. However, in the case of smoking, those choices affect my right--my need--to breathe clean air. If I get into a taxi where the driver has just put out his cigarette, I still breathe the residue smoke. If people are smoking outside a building, they don't smoke away from the door. They smoke right in front of it, and I must walk through a tunnel of smoke as they talk to each other so that I can enter the building. Even restaurants that have smoking sections are often open so that the nonsmokers are still breathing residue smoke. I can't go and listen to my sister sing because the environments where she sings are smoke-filled. She knows this and understands; but it still hurts because it costs us part of our relstionship. Music is the one thing we have in common, and I miss hearing her sing.

None of this will ever change, and I'm not sure why I'm posting it. If it helps one smoker understand nonsmokers' feelings, it will be useful. It is a little frightening to talk about my feelings in public; but I need to. Respiratory illness is more common than many people realize. It isn't something you can see; and people who take good care of themselves and avoid provoking factors can sometimes go long stretches without becoming ill. But some of that avoidance depends on environmental factors. Being around too many allergens or too many pollutants can trigger an illness that lasts for weeks.